The History of the World's Greatest Nightclubs

“The History of the World’s Greatest Nightclubs.” From London Audio, iHeartRadio, and executive producer Paris Hilton. 

Hosted by Ultra Naté, is a 12-part podcast exploring how different clubs around the world revolutionized the way we party. How they ushered in the birth of new genres and became hotspots for political activism. But above all how they created space for people to escape the world around them, to lose themselves in ...

Danceteria wasn’t just a nightclub. It was an artistic incubator at the heart of New York’s early 80s cultural renaissance. It became a space for musicians, artists, and activists to seek inspiration.  It was the club where Madonna performed on stage for the first time and Keith Haring painted art straight onto the walls, And in the midst of the AIDs crisis, it became the place New Yorkers escaped to find community, joy and the cha...

This is the story of how a Black-owned club in downtown Detroit became central to the birth of Techno. The Music Institute was only open for 18 months, but in its short lifetime, it championed the birth of Techno music and became home to some of the most influential DJs and producers of its time. It inspired a generation of young Black people to make genre shifting music that would be heard around the world for decades to come. 

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Trade at Turnmills was a legendary London Queer nightclub that's unapologetically hedonistic late-night parties transformed the way we party. Opened in the wake of the AIDS crisis and a decade of conservatism under Margaret Thatcher’s rule, Trade gave LGBTQ+ people a space to celebrate and explore their identity, carving out a revolutionary space for London’s queer community to party at while their very existence was under attack. 

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Les Bains Douches was a glamorous nightclub in the center of Paris that’s parties attracted some of the most famous and influential stars in the world. Housed in what was once Paris’s first and most decadent bathhouse, Les Bains Douches was a magical, musical experience that gave musicians like Mick Jagger, Diana Ross, and Prince a space to unwind, let loose and soak in the magic of beautiful Parisian nights. 

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Under the musical influence of the one and only Larry Levan, Paradise Garage became a vibrant musical space for Queer, Black, and Latino people in New York, to dance, and reclaim a sound that they had created. With a DJ who knew how to energize a crowd and a killer sound system that pulled people out onto the dancefloor, Paradise Garage would go on to influence musicians around the world and leave a lasting imprint on Dance music t...

New York was the epicenter of the 90s Hip Hop Renaissance and Funk Master Flex’s legendary Sunday night parties at The Tunnel, gave Hip Hop fans a home. From the phenomenal performances it hosted to the iconic songs it premiered, each night at The Tunnel was filled with cinematic scenes starring hip-hop royalty, making the club a vital cultural touchstone in the legendary 50-year history of Hip Hop.

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After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a new counter-culture emerged as the city came together to form a new identity. That cultural shift inspired the birth of Berghain, an iconic but ultra-private techno hotspot and sex club. Berghain ushered in a new era of hedonism, excess, and freeing secrecy that gave the city’s queer community a space to release their inhibitions and establish Berlin’s place as a party capital.

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Ibiza is no ordinary island and Space was no ordinary club. The open-air party which lasted 22 hours every day, revolutionized the international clubbing scene and transformed the people who flocked to its dance floor every summer. Space was the blueprint for all-day outdoor Terrace parties, became one of the most awarded clubs in history, and helped to establish Ibiza as a global party hot spot

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Fela Kuti was a musician and activist who pioneered the jazzy, uniquely West African genre of Afrobeat. His musical testing ground, political pulpit and spiritual home was a nightclub he created in Lagos, The Afrika Shrine. A venue at the heart of his community that would welcome legends, be burnt to the ground by the military, set the stage for some of his greatest performances, and inspire some of his most legendary songs. 

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When WOMB opened in 2000, Japan’s nightlife scene was still in its infancy with a strict ban on dancing after midnight that made it almost impossible to run a regular nightclub. But over the past two decades, the revolutionary club has transformed the way people in Tokyo party. This is the story of how the club went from an idea born on the dancefloors of New York into one of Japan’s most famous nightclubs. How a club that’s been o...